County Water Authority faces choices

People familiar with Surfrider Foundation and our love of the coast and ocean often ask, “What does that have to do with fresh water supplies?” The answer is that everything in nature is connected and the larger picture of water management includes keeping polluted runoff and treated sewage out of our oceans, conserving water and energy, and restoring coastal habitat – difficult challenges that every San Diegan wants addressed.

Today, the San Diego County Water Authority faces a decision that will set the vision and path for resolving those challenges. The authority will decide for every resident of our county whether to sign a contract with a private firm, Poseidon Resources, to rely on a yet-to-be built ocean desalination factory at a price well over the current cost of other alternatives. Poseidon’s business plan has failed and its only hope is for our public water supply agency to bail it out. This important question demands transparent public debate before signing on the dotted line. In addition to the excessive cost of this new water supply, which nobody seems able to reliably verify, we recommend a new vision and plan for multi-benefit water management that is sustainable and cost-effective.

Mismanagement of our water goes back to the days of seemingly endless supply. California created separate agencies to manage flood control, sewage treatment and discharge, and even the construction of our homes, streets and highways. In hindsight, this fragmented management treated water as a nuisance. In an admirable effort to make our communities safe and comfortable, we built systems to force water off the land as fast as we could. But now the perception of water shortages can drive positive change. That is why it is time to more deeply consider holistic reform instead of the narrow question of the Poseidon contract; ocean desalination is nothing more than a plan to pump the water we have historically forced off the land back onto the land – and in the process waste enormous amounts of energy and kill precious marine life with an unnecessary new industrial factory on our beautiful beach.

And now it’s readily apparent this bizarre water management approach comes at a huge financial cost to us. The original plan to build this desalination factory relied on subsidies from the Metropolitan Water District, disguising the cost by spreading it out to households all over Southern California. Those subsidies also allowed Poseidon to apply for tax-exempt status for the bonds it needs to sell – sweetening what would otherwise be an unattractively high risk for investors. That so-called business plan is no longer viable because the distant and diffused government assistance is no longer available and the firm is now angling to receive a public bailout from our local agency. The cost is now ours to pay.

We think the answer should be, “No, not until we have a thorough review of the alternatives.” Water is needed in our communities, but the solution is better water management. This is the time to reform our water management in a way that reflects what we truly value: the gifts and economic benefits of living on a world-class coastline, swimming and surfing in unpolluted waters, and restoring the functions of a natural watershed system in an urban environment. We can no longer afford to treat water like a nuisance and pay for an antiquated management approach. Let’s capture rainwater runoff and store it for use later. We can safely purify our wastewater for reuse at a fraction of the cost of ocean desalination – and eliminate ocean discharges of partially treated sewage. We can implement low-impact development, “green streets” programs and landscape changes that will capture and store rainwater before it picks up and carries pollutants to our beaches. Treatment wetlands can be built in networks on our urban creeks to capture water, reduce risks of flood damage, and provide critical habitat for wildlife now threatened with extinction. All of these solutions will create jobs and help our local economy.